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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28910889">Where flowers bloom.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michaelssw0rd/pseuds/Michaelssw0rd'>Michaelssw0rd</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Merlin (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Banter, Canon Era, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 11:29:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,252</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28910889</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michaelssw0rd/pseuds/Michaelssw0rd</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a myth that says: if you hold a buttercup under someone's chin, and their chin glows yellow, it means they are in love.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>254</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Merlin Tiny Reverse Bang</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Where flowers bloom.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicalmysticalmanservant/gifts">Cosmo Cat (magicalmysticalmanservant)</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Inspired by lovely LOVELY art that Cosmo Cat did for Merlin Tiny Reverse bang. The art had SO MUCH CHARACTER and so much emotions inspired by the warmth of the tones and the beautiful setting and smiles. Loved it so much I felt compelled to write for it too! Thank you for the lovely inspiration.</p><p>Its SO nice to be inspired again!</p><p>I hope you like it &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Squinting through the sunlight streaming into his room, Arthur scowled at Merlin, ready to tell him to get out. It was far too early to wake up the crown prince of Camelot. Never mind that the sunlight indicated it was way past dawn. It was <em>always</em> too early to wake up the crown prince of Camelot.</p><p>“Rise and shine,” Merlin said, and Arthur just about threw a pillow at him.</p><p>Just about.</p><p>The tiny sun shining in Merlin’s hair stopped him short.</p><p>“Merlin…” Arthur started, not sure whether he was lucid yet, or still dreaming.</p><p>“Shut up, Arthur.”</p><p>Not a dream then; Merlin was <em>slightly</em> more polite to him in the dreams.</p><p>Arthur laughed, pulling himself upright to better appreciate the spectacle.</p><p>“I always knew you were a <em>girl</em>, Merlin. But this….”</p><p>“I always knew you were a clotpole,” Merlin muttered under his breath, but loud enough for Arthur to listen.</p><p>Instead of being deflected by the insult, like Merlin no doubt intended him to be, Arthur continued.</p><p>“Still… wearing a flower in your hair. That’s….” Arthur tried to find the right word, but Merlin beat him to it.</p><p>“None of your business.”</p><p>Arthur looked more closely at the flower and laughed again. “A buttercup? Really?”</p><p>Merlin glared at him. “You’re picky about flowers,” Merlin said. “And you’re calling <em>me </em>a girl.”</p><p>“I am still not <em>wearing</em> one, Merlin,” Arthur argued.</p><p>“You wish you were,” Merlin retorted back.</p><p>“I do not!” Arthur protested vehemently.</p><p>“Anyway, you called the knights to train today at <em>dawn</em>. They are waiting for you in the grounds. The ladies of the town are feeding them—out of gratitude, or pity, I don’t know. The longer you wait, the more they will eat, and the harder your job is going to get.”</p><p>Ignoring Merlin’s tirade, Arthur continued. “At least tell me a girl gave it to you! I mean, strange way of courting, if she did, because it should’ve been the other way around. But still…”</p><p>“As a matter of fact, she did,” Merlin smiled at his dumbstruck face, walking towards the door. “She is a beautiful woman, on top of that. The most beautiful one I know. ”</p><p>Arthur couldn’t come up with anything to say, his mind struck at once by feelings of disbelief, surprise and not a little bit of jealousy. Merlin took advantage of that, walking towards the door. “The knights are getting fatter by the minute, Arthur. Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he said, before closing the door behind him.</p><p>Arthur sagged into the bed, staring at the ceiling. The sunlight was still filtering into the room from the window, brightening it up. Somehow it still felt dimmer without the light of reflecting from the buttercup in Merlin’s hair.</p><p>Resigning himself to get up and find that light again, Arthur dragged himself out of the bed.</p><p>When he reached the fields, he realized Merlin had been right. The ladies of Camelot had taken it upon themselves to feed—excessively so—the kingdom’s knights.</p><p>He also learned that Hunith was in town, when he saw her just outside the courtyard with a basket of buttercups in her hands.</p><p>Smiling, with a knot he didn’t even know existed loosening in his chest, Arthur proceeded to help the knights burn (and maybe even regret) the food they had consumed.</p>
<hr/><p>There was a field of buttercups just outside of Camelot. Whenever Arthur felt like he couldn’t breathe freely, suffocating under the courtesy and the obligations that came with his role as a prince, he sought the field out.</p><p>The sunlight glinting off of the flowers in a wide open field somehow expanded his chest, lifting the weight of his duty off of his shoulders even if just for a little while.</p><p>Of course, he also made it a habit of dragging Merlin alongside him.</p><p>“I had tasks to finish for Gaius, Arthur,” Merlin complained as he plopped down into the grass. “If I don’t do them today, Gaius is going to make me clean the leech tank as punishment.”</p><p>“If you don’t stop your whining, I can add cleaning the stables to your list too.” Arthur sat down beside Merlin, enjoying the heat of the autumn sun on his back.</p><p>Merlin mumbled something ungratefully, before lying down.</p><p>“That’s right.” Arthur laughed. “You should rest up; conserve that energy for the leech tank.”</p><p>Merlin glared at him. “You’re a terrible person.”</p><p>Arthur laughed again, Merlin’s candor as freeing as the fresh air of the field. “And you, Merlin, are a terrible manservant.”</p><p>Arthur waited for Merlin to retort back, but it seemed like Merlin wasn’t going to. Instead, he was just lying on the ground with his eyes closed and a smile on his lips. He painted such a picture of serenity that Arthur felt helplessly drawn to it. Deciding it was a good idea, in this instance, to follow Merlin’s suite, Arthur lowered his back to the ground too, settling himself in the soft grass with his arms folded behind his head, and stared at the sky.</p><p>They lay there like that for a while, listening to the sound of birds, until Arthur had almost dozed off. He woke up when he heard Merlin say something.</p><p>“What?” he asked, reorienting himself to the present, and turning his face towards Merlin.</p><p>Merlin had plucked a buttercup and was holding it above himself in the air to stare at it.</p><p>“I said, do you know the myth about them?” Merlin asked, “Or do they not teach those to the royalty.”</p><p>At Arthur’s blank look, Merlin rolled over, bringing the flower close to Arthur’s face. “The myth goes something like this,” Merlin said, bobbing Arthur’s nose gently with the flower, and then caressing it down Arthur’s jaw. That caught Arthur’s attention, hyper focusing on the feather light touch on his skin.</p><p>
  
</p><p>“If you hold a buttercup under a person’s chin,” Merlin continued, dragging the flower down to Arthur’s chin. “And their chin glows yellow, it means the person is in love.”</p><p>Arthur couldn’t form words. He just stared at Merlin, as he placed the buttercup under Arthur’s chin. A moment later, Merlin looked into Arthur’s eyes, his own filled with mischief.</p><p>“Arthur…” Merlin’s voice was full of teasing. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”</p><p>“What?” Arthur spoke over the lump in his throat.</p><p>“You’re in love!” Merlin exclaimed, sitting up beside Arthur’s supine form and grinning.</p><p>“What?” This time Arthur’s voice was more of a squeak.</p><p>“Buttercups don’t lie, Arthur.” To emphasize the point, Merlin waved the buttercup in front of him. “Your chin was glowing yellow! Yellow. You’re obviously in love.”</p><p>Arthur swallowed, speechless for a moment in face of Merlin’s playfulness. Merlin took advantage of that and placed the buttercup under Arthur’s chin again, whooping triumphantly. “See, still glowing! Spill, Arthur. Who is it?”</p><p>“You idiot,” Arthur finally summoned some words, shaking his head. “Do you take me for a fool?”</p><p>Merlin raised his eyebrow, in a style he had obviously learned from Gaius, in response. Deciding that he didn’t really want to know what Merlin meant by that, Arthur continued.</p><p>“The myth says <em>butter</em>. Not person. If your chin glows yellow, it means you love butter!”</p><p>Merlin sweet smile told Arthur that he knew this version of the myth already. Merlin’s eyes moved away from Arthur’s face and down to his belly, and then back up.</p><p>Then he gave Arthur a meaningful look.</p><p>“Are you sure you prefer that version?” Merlin asked, all innocent curiosity.</p><p>Arthur sputtered. “You insolent--,”</p><p>Not finding words to continue, Arthur sat up and tackled Merlin to the ground. The loud shriek Merlin let out made Arthur grin; his feeble attempts at fighting off Arthur making him laugh.</p><p>A few rolls in the grass, a lot of girly shrieks and insults from Merlin, and a lot of shared laughter later, Arthur trapped Merlin underneath him, sitting on his waist, victorious.</p><p>“Are you still calling me fat?” Arthur asked.</p><p>Merlin raised both his hands up above his head while lying flat on the ground. “I never said that, Sire,” he said. “You’re the one who said buttercup under the chin mean that.”</p><p>“I said that because—” Arthur trailed off when he noticed the teasing mischief in Merlin’s eyes.</p><p>Looking away from that stare, Arthur’s gaze fell on a buttercup near his hand. Deftly, he plucked it out. Placing it under Merlin’s chin, Arthur whooped.</p><p>“See. It glows under your chin too!” Arthur exclaimed.</p><p>Merlin just laid there, looking back at Arthur with a smile in his eyes, and no complaints on his lips.</p><p>“It does! And you definitely have no cushion under your sharp bones, so it’s not butter! You’re in love, Merlin,” Arthur mimicked Merlin’s words, mocking him.</p><p>Still, Merlin did not protest.</p><p>Much in a way that Merlin had, Arthur waved the flower in front of Merlin’s face. “Buttercups don’t lie, Merlin,” he said. It was then that he noticed Merlin’s eyes. Warm, mischievous, and full of something Arthur couldn’t quite place. It was then that Arthur took notice of Merlin’s lack of denial.</p><p>Suddenly, acutely, Arthur became aware of their position, of the searing heat of Merlin’s sun-warmed body underneath him.</p><p>Merlin held his gaze, the warmth transforming into a burning intensity.</p><p>“You…” Arthur started.</p><p>Merlin’s shrugged lightly. “You caught me,” he said. Before Arthur could come up with something to say, something witty to retort, Merlin raised his hand and tangled it in Arthur’s tunic. “I <em>am</em> in love.” Merlin used the tunic to pull Arthur closer. Arthur followed like a puppet, until he could feel Merlin’s breath on his own lips. “With a <em>prat</em>,” Merlin finished, before closing the distance and pressing his lips against Arthur’s.</p>
<hr/><p>In the field full of buttercups, Merlin’s writhing body glowed yellow.</p><p>Arthur ran the flower down Merlin’s body, admiring the pretty play of golden hues followed by the red flush of Merlin’s skin. He caressed it against Merlin’s neck, his chest, his stomach, following it up with his tongue, until the swear words that were so common from Merlin’s mouth came out in a completely different, breathy tone. Although Arthur much preferred this tone, Arthur continued his assault, finding the spots that made Merlin cry out—like the spot under his ear, the inside of his thigh, the juncture of his hip—until Merlin’s vocabulary disintegrated into desperate pleas and pleasured sighs.</p><p>When Merlin arched under him, crying out his release while repeating a mantra of Arthur’s name, Arthur found that Merlin’s eyes glowed with the color of buttercups too.</p>
<hr/><p>They were out on routine patrol with the knights, when Merlin turned around and said to Arthur. “You know, they kind of remind me of you.”</p><p>Merlin had plucked out a buttercup while walking through the forest and was twisting it around in his fingers.</p><p>Arthur suppressed the image of Merlin lying naked in the field of the very same flowers a few weeks ago, covered in sweat and spent, and smirked at him.</p><p>“Comparing me to flowers will not convince me to give you a day off, Merlin,” Arthur said. “I thought we have been over this.”</p><p>Merlin pretended not to hear him, continuing his tirade. “I mean, you would think it’s your hair. It’s the same color after all, but that’s not it.” Merlin looked up at him, daring him to ask.</p><p>If Arthur was a better man, he wouldn’t have taken the bait. “Is it the beauty?”</p><p>Merlin grinned. “They are toxic,” Merlin elaborated. “I once nibbled on one as a kid—don’t look at me like that; I was a curious child—and I remember getting blisters in my mouth. Mother told me that if I ingest them, it would make me feel terribly sick, even kill me.”</p><p>Arthur was about to get offended, but Merlin wasn’t done yet. “And they taste absolutely <em>foul</em>. Like imagine the bitterest tasting thing. These—” Merlin waved the buttercup in front of him. “These taste <em>worse.</em>”</p><p>Before Arthur could get properly furious, Gwaine plucked the buttercup out of Merlin’s fingers. He looked at the flower from all angles, and then inspected Arthur. Then, he casually threw it over his shoulder.</p><p>“Nah. Our princess is more delicate than that flower,” he said, with a grin on his lips. “And dare I say, prettier?”</p><p>In retaliation, Arthur made Gwaine collect all the firewood for the campfire that night, giving the other knights a break.</p><p>Merlin, he punished, by taking him deeper into the woods and reacquainting him with the taste of Arthur’s mouth. When he was done, Merlin’s lips were swollen and bruised. Much like he suspected they were when Merlin munched on the toxic flowers.</p>
<hr/><p>Arthur woke up and found a vase full of buttercups on the table beside his bed. He plucked one out and rolled into his bed, turning to face Merlin who was still sleeping.</p><p>Softly, he caressed Merlin’s face with it, much like he had done all those months ago in the field, until he stopped at the chin. He found himself mesmerized by the yellow reflection.</p><p>“I am.” While Arthur had been distracted, Merlin had woken up. At Merlin’s confession, Arthur looked up at him and smiled, before tucking the flower in Merlin’s hair. He settled back down in bed, pulling Merlin into his embrace. There was still time before he had to be a prince again.</p><p>“So am I,” Arthur confessed, feeling as free as he did in the empty field of flowers. “So am I.”</p>
<hr/><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Here I am, starting to write and post again. Its so nice to be doing so and interacting with you lovely readers. &lt;3. Do let me know if you guys liked it, and what! The feedback motivates me to like... keep going!!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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